Not long after the lockout Larkin assumed direct command of the ICA, beginning the process of its reform into a revolutionary paramilitary organisation by arming them with Mauser rifles bought from Germany by the Irish Volunteers and smuggled into Ireland at Howth in July 1914.

He was elected to the strike committee and, although he lost his foreman's job as a result, his performance so impressed the National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL) that he was appointed a temporary organiser.

[12][5] In January 1907, Larkin undertook his first task on behalf of the trade union movement in Ireland, when he arrived in Belfast to organise the city's dock workers for the NUDL.

Also in 1908, Arthur Griffith during the Dublin carter's strike described Larkin as an "Englishman importing foreign political disruption into this country and putting native industry at risk".

[17] In August 1913 during the lock-out, Larkin was described by Vladimir Lenin as a 'talented leader' as well as 'a remarkable speaker and a man of seething energy [who] has performed miracles amongst the unskilled workers'.

Other leaders in the ITGWU at the time were James Connolly and William O'Brien; influential figures such as Patrick Pearse, Constance Markievicz and W. B. Yeats supported the workers in the generally anti-Larkin Irish press.

The Citizen Army for the duration of the lock-out was armed with hurleys (sticks used in hurling, a traditional Irish sport) and bats to protect workers' demonstrations from the police.

In addition to its role as a self-defence organisation, the Army, which was drilled in Croydon Park in Fairview by White, provided a diversion for workers unemployed and idle during the dispute.

Beginning the process of its reform into a revolutionary paramilitary organisation by arming them with Mauser rifles bought from Germany by the Irish Volunteers and smuggled into Ireland at Howth in July 1914.

[17] In addition to recuperating from the strain of the lockout and undertaking a tour of the United States, Larkin also intended to raise funds for the union and the fledgling ICA, and to rebuild their headquarters Liberty Hall.

Shortly before his departure, he declined a request by the Irish Trades Union Congress to join a two-man mission to raise funds for the Labour Party, replying that if he went he would be 'going alone and freelance'.

Within days of arriving in the country, he addressed a crowd of 15,000 people gathered at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the election of Socialist candidate Meyer London to the United States House of Representatives.

[1] Soon after his speech at Maddison Garden, he was invited by Devoy to speak to a combined audience of German Uhlans and Irish Volunteers in Philadelphia, where he enthusiastically called for money and arms for the Republican cause in Ireland to a cheering crowd.

[17] Elsewhere, he was reported as having said that he did not want a German victory, instead preferring a military deadlock, leading to workers' revolts in the belligerent countries, a desire which came partly true, following the Russian Revolution of 1917.

According to British Army Intelligence officer, Henry Landau: Larkin testified that he himself never took part in the actual sabotage campaign but, rather, confined himself to the organising of strikes to secure both higher pay and shorter hours for workmen and to prevent the shipment of munitions to the Allies.

Whilst in America, Larkin had become an enthusiastic supporter of the Soviets and, following an address at the club by Jack Reed, who had recently returned from Russia, interest in the Bolsheviks was revitalised.

[17] The Connolly Club became the national hub of the new communist project, housing the offices of Larkin's SPA faction's Revolutionary Age and Reed's Voice of Labour.

New York State Prosecutor Alexander Rourke took advantage of a query from Scotland Yard as to whether Larkin would be allowed to travel to South Africa to turn his allies in the Irish nationalist movement, including Devoy, against him.

[17] Larkin was later moved to Great Meadow, a comfortable, open prison, where he was visited by Constance Markievicz who, whilst noting his apparent appreciation of his conditions, also sensed his fretfulness at being cut off from politics.

Larkin appealed and, during his time out of jail, he was cabled by Grigory Zinoviev President of the Communist International (Comintern) who gave their 'warmest greetings to the undaunted fighter released from the "democratic" prisons'.

The election of Irish-American Al Smith to the position of Governor of New York in November 1922 represented a change in circumstances and was also a clear indication that the Red Scare had largely abated.

[17] The Comintern wrote to Larkin on 3 February to express their 'great joy' at his release and to extend an invitation to visit Soviet Russia at his earliest opportunity, to 'discuss a number of burning questions affecting the international revolutionary movement'.

[31] Larkin made a number of financial requests to the ITGWU, including asking them to cover the costs of purchasing passage on a steamer ship, although he, in characteristic fashion, did not reveal the reason.

Upon his return to Ireland in April 1923, Larkin received a hero's welcome and immediately set about touring the country, meeting trade union members and appealing for an end to the Irish Civil War[citation needed].

Larkin perceived certain actions undertaken by Stewart as attempts to circumvent his authority, including sending a republican delegation to Moscow and directing £500 sent by the Russian Red Cross intended to aid the Irish famine relief effort to George Lansbury a left-wing British Labour M.P., rather than to the WUI.

[32] Communism in Ireland at this time also had a distinct lack of controversy surrounding it, with the IRA sending delegations to Moscow and maintaining a widespread and open association with Profintern.

His funeral mass was celebrated by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, who had visited him in the hospital before he died, and thousands lined the streets of the city as the hearse passed through on the way to Glasnevin Cemetery, escorted by the Irish Citizen Army in its last public appearance.

One told of a "Jewess" (female Jew) who was demanding back the price of her pushy son's theatre ticket when, rushing to get the best seat in the house, he fell to his death from a balcony.

[43] Larkin has been the subject of poems by Brendan Behan,[44] Patrick Kavanagh,[45] Frank O'Connor, Donagh MacDonagh and Lola Ridge; his character has been central in plays by Daniel Corkery, George Russell (Æ), and Seán O'Casey;[46] and he is a heroic figure in the background of James Plunkett's novel Strumpet City[47] and Lyn Andrews' Where the Mersey Flows.

The original slogan is usually attributed to Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794), the French revolutionary;[citation needed] but it appears, only slightly modified, in an essay written by Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563) and first published in 1576.